Slovaks are increasingly interested in recreational real estate. The demand has increased by 20 percent over the last year. The most wanted properties are cottages near Michalovce in eastern Slovakia.

“The reason for this in particular is the Zemplínska Šírava lake, which has again become a significant recreational area for the whole east of Slovakia,” Martin Lazík, real estate analyst with the real estate website Nehnutelnosti.sk, told the Hospodárske Noviny. In May alone, Slovak interest in cottages in this region increased by as much as 50 percent.

Michal Macháč, an expert on travel from TM Travel, confirms that people are looking for alternative and cheaper ways of spending holidays by the water.

“The low price of services in eastern Slovakia, compared with the west, means that Slovaks increasingly use the opportunities that, for example, Zemplínska Šírava, has to offer,” said Macháč. “As well as the Zemplín region, people are also becoming more interested in cottages in Modra and Senec, closer to Bratislava.”

In the long-term, the biggest interest in recreational real estate is in the Low and High Tatras and their ski resorts. These regions attract most tourism investments.

“The most expensive weekend houses and other kinds of recreational real estates are right here,” said Lazík.

The second most wanted locality for recreational housing is Modra. Here interest has increased by 35 percent over the year. On the other hand, the locality of Terchová village in north-western Slovakia has fallen in popularity from first to third position. The Senec region followed fourth, with an annual increase of 30 percent, based on an analysis by Nehnutelnosti.sk.

Increased interest results in higher prices.

“The price of recreational real estate offered on real estate websites has increased compared to the previous year,” said Lazík, adding that this is also due to the greater availability of refurbished cottages and weekend houses, the price of which is higher than those in original condition.

The highest increase in prices was registered in the Žilina Region – 12.5 percent.

“Especially in the vicinity of large towns, it seems that people are re-building their cottages into houses, in which they live year-round,” said Lazík.

However, comparison of the price of recreational real estate is very difficult as, contrary to apartments, the size does not play a significant role. The final price is affected by the locality, condition and outfit of the real estate. A cottage on a lake or on the slope of a ski resort has a different price than a cottage with worse accessibility lying outside the main tourist resorts.

Photo: Zemplínska Šírava lake, TASR

More articles

At the end of 2018, the offer of housing units in newly finished apartment buildings in Bratislava hit a low since 2002-2005, when this market started developing in Slovakia. This resulted in an increase of average prices of apartments.

The iconic building of the British retail chain Tesco department store in the centre of Bratislava has changed hands. The new owner of the building is the Mirage Shopping Center company of Žilina-based businessman George Trabelssie. Since 2016 the retail chain Tesco has sold five department stores across Slovakia. Trabelssie, who is close to former chair of the Slovak National Party (SNS) Ján Slota, acquired Tesco department stores also in Nitra and Žilina, the Hospodárske Noviny business daily reported. Tesco will continue to operate in the building on Kamenné Square as it will rent the premises.

The reconstruction of the Park Inn by Radisson Danube hotel in Bratislava has become the ugliest new building constructed between the years 2011 and 2018. As much as almost one third of 1002 participants in a survey organised by the website Trend Reality of the economic weekly Trend voted for it. The weekly launched the survey in early December. Its goal was to start a discussion and hold up a kind of mirror to developers.

Prices of apartments grew at a two-digit pace in Slovakia in 2018. The average price of an apartment increased from €1,479 per square metre to €1,655 per square metre during the first 11 months of 2018. This means an increase of €176 per square metre or 11.9 percent, Vladimír Kubrický, analyst with the Real Estate Union, told the TASR newswire.

Bratislava’s Old Town has gotten a new square. It is part of a new office-residential complex called Blumental, built by the development company Corwin. It is flanked by streets Mýtna and Radlinského and interconnects with them. It was named after mediaeval King Matthias Corvinus, Matej Korvín Square.

Bratislava is scheduled to get a new landmark within a few years. The developer J&T Real Estate (JLRE) has obtained a development permit for the project of extending Eurovea on the Danube embankment. Included is the 168-metre high Eurovea Tower, the first building in Bratislava that meets the latest criteria for being called a skyscraper, i.e. higher than 150 metres. The residence tower will have 47 storeys and have almost more than 380 residential units. The project will add 84,000 square metres of retail premises to the existing ones in the first phase of Eurovea, the Hospodárske Noviny wrote.

The Saudi-Arabian company Sisban has started building a brand new logistics park near the village Chocholná-Velčice in the Trenčín Region. Sihoť Park will spread over 160,000 square metres, while investments are projected at €50 million. This is the company’s first investment in Slovakia, the TASR newswire reported.